Delaware legislator aims to become first openly transgender house member

State Senator Sarah McBride announced Monday that she would run for the U.S. House seat in Delaware — a bid that, if successful, would make her the first openly transgender member of the U.S. Congress.

The seat is currently held by Representative Lisa Blunt Rochester, a Democrat who said Wednesday she would pursue the Senate seat vacated by retiring Senator Thomas R. Carper. Both elections will take place next year.

Ms. McBride, 32, is no stranger to firsts: In 2012, she became the first openly transgender person to work in the White House, as an intern in President Barack Obama’s administration. She won her 2020 state senate seat in Wilmington with more than 70 percent of the general election vote, becoming the first openly transgender legislator in that position in the entire country, and ran unopposed for a second term last year.

Her candidacy comes amid an onslaught of Republican-led policies targeting LGBTQ people.

This year, 17 states passed bills aimed at gender-affirming care for transgender youth, a sharp increase from the three states that previously approved restrictions. And there are discussions to ban LGBTQ-related information for K-12 students in states like Florida, where laws prohibit public schools from teaching about sexual orientation and gender identity.

Ms. McBride, also a former national press secretary for the Human Rights Campaign, the nation’s largest LGBTQ advocacy organization, is likely facing a major challenge in her solid blue neighborhood. But she has plenty of political capital in the state — aided by her relationship with President Biden, who wrote the foreword to the memoir she wrote in 2018. She also worked on the Attorney General’s campaigns for Beau Biden, his son who died in 2015.

Ms. McBride recently spoke to The New York Times about her candidacy. Excerpts from this conversation have been edited for clarity and length.

What topics do you hope to prioritize in your campaign?

There were so many pieces of the Build Back Better Act that have sadly been left on the cutting room floor, and it will be critical for Congress to address those policies, such as paid family and medical leave, affordable early childhood education and elderly care . Those kinds of policies will be at the center of my campaign, as will those I campaigned for in the Delaware General Assembly, such as gun safety and reproductive rights. One of the topics on which we must continue to make progress is climate change. We can’t build a fairer, more just world if we don’t protect our planet as well.

A flurry of bills in recent years have hit transgender people, such as restricting transitional procedures for children and restricting which bathrooms transgender people can use. What are your concerns for the future?

The policies you mentioned are wrong and unconstitutional, and are an attempt by MAGA Republicans to distract from the fact that they have absolutely no agenda for families and for workers in our country. They are solutions in search of a problem. They are brutal, and we know that policies that target youth, that target parents, that target families, that target the vulnerable in our society will never perform well in history. I truly believe that democracy only works if we are all involved.

What must members of your party do to comply with these laws?

I am incredibly proud that the Democratic Party has steadfast support for LGBTQ rights. We’ve seen Democrats from Montana, to Nebraska, to Virginia, to Delaware, make it clear that attacks on vulnerable members of our communities, including LGBTQ youth, will not last, and we will do everything we can to stop them.

People in this country want politicians to call on our better angels and focus on things that really matter. I don’t believe suing children and parents for discrimination is a priority for voters in Delaware or across the country.

President Biden enters 2024 struggling to maintain public approval. What do you think he and other Democrats should be thinking about?

Democrats have a strong track record and there is clearly unfinished work ahead of us. This president has focused on working families, on recognizing that we all have a responsibility to one another. I think if this president continues to contrast his priorities with the fabricated problems and culture wars of the right, this president will win.

There is a type of control that historically has come to be first of all. Worried about recoil?

There will certainly be attacks, but I am no stranger to that. What I’ve shown over the years is that I can step past those attacks and focus on what matters to the people I represent. Congress is certainly different from the Delaware State Senate, but I’m confident that when I get there, by focusing on issues that people of every party, of every ideology, and in every part of our state, I will be able to find common ground with people with whom I vehemently disagree.